Pen Pals
by Salt and Limes
Summary: Bella and Jasper have been friends for years, but have never met. What happens when Bella not only meets Jasper, but his brother Edward as well? Rated M for mature content in later chapters. All-human.


**Disclaimer-I don't own the characters...I just separate them**

**1995**

The noise of the twenty-five seven-year-olds overwhelmed my ears as my classmates milled around, catching up on what they did over their Christmas breaks. I tried to hear Charlotte over them, but she eventually gave up and just mouthed the word "later" to me. I nodded and focused my attention on Mrs. Cope as she tried to settle her excited class.

After five minutes, my classmates were all finally silently seated and paying attention.

"Okay, class. I trust you all had a good Christmas?" Mrs. Cope asked indulgently, smiling as the rowdier students erupted again.

"Okay, okay," she chuckled out. "Today we'll be doing something a little different."

She held up a stack of letters in her hand. "Each of you is going to become a pen-pal for your next English assignment."

Some groans escaped the mouths of the classmates who were notoriously bad at reading and writing, but I sat straighter in my seat, excited by the idea.

"I'll be passing each of you a random letter and the person who wrote it will become your pen-pal for the rest of the term." She started walking down the aisle and handing an envelope to each person. "Don't open it until I finish explaining the assignment, please," she said, shooting a glance back at the students she had already given one to.

"You're required to write at least eight times to your pen-pals and we'll work on the letters every second day. When everyone is finished their final draft of them, you'll hand them into me and I'll send them back. Any questions so far?" She handed the last letter to me and turned to survey the silent class. "No? Good. We're writing to a class of students who are from Texas. Who can tell me where Texas is?"

She looked around at the silent classroom. Mike hesitantly raised his hand. She indicated for him to answer.

"British Columbia?"

Mrs. Cope smiled at him encouragingly. "Good guess, Mike, but no. Anyone else?" Her eyes scanned the still quiet classroom, waiting for an answer.

Unable to resist, I whispered the answer under my breath, and of course, between my luck and the fact that Mrs. Cope still hadn't moved, she heard me.

"Bella?" Mrs. Cope turned to look at me.

I took a deep breath and tried to push away my shyness. "United States," I repeated, a little louder.

"Yes, Bella. Very good. Texas is in the United States." She smiled at me as she repeated my answer louder so that the rest of the class could hear my response. "One last thing before you read your letter from your new pen-pals: do not tell them your address or your phone number. This is purely an in-class correspondence. I'll be proof-reading your letter so I'll remind you in case you forget and accidentally include that information, but try to remember." She looked around as she walked to the front of the classroom. "Questions?" She waited a beat. "All right then. Read away."

I exchanged a glance and a small smile with Charlotte before opening my letter carefully.

_Hello__, pen pal,_

_My name is Jasper Whitlock..._

**2010**

"Bella, where'd you put my red shoes?" Charlotte yelled up the stairs.

I walked to the top of them to look down at her. "Where they're supposed to be," I said, holding back a small chuckle.

She shook her head, her long brown curls bouncing as she did. "No, they're not in the hallway." She smirked at our old joke.

I laughed at her. "Right side of the closet," I told her.

"Okay." She smiled fully. "Sure you don't want to come out with me and Peter? Jake will be there," she teased.

I shook my head at her, smile still in place. "I'm sure, but thanks for the offer."

"Fine then, go back to your relationship with your phone."

"I told you-"

"He's just a friend." She waved her hand at me. "Yeah, yeah, I get it."

She turned to go find her shoes but stopped, one hand still on the end of the banister, and looked up the stairs at me from the corner of her eye.

"You know..." she said through her smirk. "I bet you anything that Jacob would _happily_ be willing to be more than a friend.

"Eh, he's just friendly."

"Uh huh." She didn't sound convinced, but mercifully let it go. "Well, have a good night, Bells. I'm outta here," she said, in her best gangster voice.

" 'Kay, Chuck," I told her. "Be good."

She bowed to me mockingly while backing up slowly. "Aren't I always?"

I just laughed at her. "'Bye."

Charlotte, or Chuck as I had lovingly re-christened her, had been my best friend since we were four. We'd lived just down the street from each other in a little town on the outskirts of Ottawa, called Constance Bay. We'd gone to the same elementary and high school together, and so naturally, when we'd both been accepted to the same university in Ottawa, we found a house to rent together with some other friends, Angela and Rosalie.

Our house was usually a whirlwind of chaos. There were always people rushing in and out, either coming from or going to class. We always had visitors, either on the couch watching movies, playing video games, or hanging out in someone's room with the music blaring.

With everyone but me gone however, the house was eerily silent. Chuck was gone to a late concert with Peter and Jake, Angela was at a friend's house studying and Rosalie was out on a date with Emmett, my older brother.

I passed the clock in the hallway: 8:30 on a Friday night. What to do?

I closed my bedroom door after entering it and lit a cigarette. I inhaled deeply before walking over to the window to crack it open. I exhaled my smoke-infused breath as an icy breeze wafted over me and my stifling room.

All of my housemates smoked, with the exception of Angela. Out of respect for her, we'd made a rule that Rose, Chuck and I would only smoke in our respective rooms, leaving all the common areas and Angela's room as smoke-free zones.

I sighed in relief as the combination of nicotine and cool air relaxed muscles that I hadn't even known were tense.

I walked around my bed to my desk but quickly decided that it was still too hot on that side of the room, so I snagged my cell phone and an ashtray before settling myself into my comfy chair beside the window.

Angela and Rose were fans of being warmer than a thermal blanket in the desert. Chuck and I, on the other hand, were perfectly content with becoming the frozen popsicle versions of our former selves.

Hey, there's a reason I live in Canada.

So Chuck and I had bought Rose and Angie space heaters and allowed them free reign of the thermostat so long as we could open our windows as often as we wanted.

I checked my phone as I tapped the ash build-up on my cigarette into the ashtray. Nothing. I shrugged, grabbed my current book, _Club Dead_, and started to read.

About thirty minutes and pages passed before my phone decided to come back to life and buzz at me, demanding attention.

_New Msg_, it told me.

I flipped it open.

_Sorry I was away for so long. I was eating dinner and got caught up in my next chapter. What are you doing?"_

I smiled at my phone before eagerly replying.

_That's ok__ay. What'd you have? I'm reading._

I hit send and then resumed my book, waiting for my words to travel the 2,500-odd miles to reach him.

I was interrupted from my book when my phone buzzed with his response. _Homemade mac 'n cheese. What are you reading? Anything of mine?_

I chuckled. _Lol. Well if you had published something in the last year, I would be. No, Charlaine Harris. P.S. Sounds good._

_:P Very funny, har, har. Which book? P.S. It was good._

_Club Dead_

_Oooh, which part?_

I blushed, thinking about the very sexual scene I was in the middle of reading between texts.

_The part where Bubba interrupts Sookie and Eric when they were..._

_Ah. Like that part, Bells?_

I blushed at his banter.

_None of your business._

_Lol. That's a yes. Tell me:__ Bill or Eric?_

_Eric, _I replied without hesitation. _I like blonds better._

_Really? Interesting. Filing in the Bella vault._

We continued our easy banter for hours. I always lost track of time while talking to him and before I knew it, Emmett was sticking his head into my room.

"You still up, Bells?" he asked, coming into my room and closing the door behind him.

"Huh?" I looked up at him, confused by the question. "Yeah, of course I am, why wouldn't I be..." I trailed off as I looked at the clock: 1:30 A.M. "Oh, shit. Is that the time?"

Emmett's laugh boomed through my room. He continued to chuckle as he lit a cigarette and collapsed on my bed, shaking its poor frame.

"Uh, yeah, Bells. That's the time. Don't you have an early class tomorrow?" He chuckled.

I nodded, still stunned at the time. I shook my head out of its daze and kind of smirked at Emmett. "So, how was your date with Rose?"

I'd known Rose for eight years, and by extension, Emmett had known Rose for eight years. I'd always suspected that Emmett had a thing for her ever since I was fourteen, but he had adamantly denied it. Despite Emmett's bravado, booming loudness and outgoing personality, I knew that he was painfully shy when it came to girls he actually had a thing for. I was pretty sure the only reason he had a reputation as a ladies' man, let alone that he had lost his virginity at all was because girls had always thrown themselves at him. If he hadn't been my big brother, then I would definitely have to agree with all my friends when they said he was a good-looking guy.

We'd both inherited our mother's brown and curly hair, but where mine was so thick that the curls came out as waves, Emmett's was thin and showed themselves in cute little pin curls that he wore around his face. I'd gotten our father's brown eyes, whereas Emmett got our mother's piercingly intense baby blues. We'd both inherited our father's pale skin and spatter of freckles across the nose, but while I burned within fifteen minutes of going out in the sun, Emmett could spend hours outside and come back in sporting a tan that the freckles only enhanced.

In a nutshell, my brother was a good-looking goofball who was shy with girls, so it was a shock to me when he finally manned up and asked Rose out on a date. Tonight had been their third date, and so far it was going well.

He exhaled heavily and grinned, his dimples popping out to say hello to me.

"Great ,Bells. God, she's just so amazing!" His eyes got a soft and tender look as he retreated into his head.

I grinned at him, and his eyes refocused on me after a minute. He blushed slightly.

"I don't know how to explain it." He shrugged. "We just fit, you know?"

I didn't know firsthand, but I nodded at him to show my understanding of the expression.

"So, why are you up so late?" he asked.

It was my turn to shrug. "Just lost track of time, I guess."

He nodded, studying me as I lit my own cigarette.

His head tilted toward my book. "Good book?"

I nodded. "I finished the last one in the series and then had to dive right into the next one." As I finished my sentence, my phone buzzed at me from the arm of my chair.

Emmett's head quirked and his eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at my phone. A grin slowly spread across his face, his eyes sparkling as he recognized material he could use to tease his sister.

"Aha!" he laughed. "The mystery of Bella still being awake is solved."

"Shut it, Em," I warned.

He bit back another comment but I could still see it behind his eyes. We sat still for a minute; me glaring at him, him smiling mischievously at me.

"That's it," I said, breaking the silence. "Get out."

His jaw dropped. "But I didn't even say anything!" he protested.

"I know, but you were thinking it." I stared at his unmoving form on my bed. "Besides, I'm going to sleep."

"Sure you are." He grinned at me, still not moving.

I held his gaze, like my father had taught me, my eyes boring into his.

He gave in, in under a minute.

He put out his half-smoked cigarette in the ashtray beside my bed and hauled himself up with a sigh. "'Kay, Bells, you win." I smiled at him sweetly before he continued. "Sleep well, and call Dad tomorrow about Christmas. He's wondering when we're all free to get together."

"Will do, Em. 'Night."

He pulled me into a hug and I was engulfed in the brotherly love that emanated from him.

I laughed as he pulled away. "Em, did you gain more muscle mass? I didn't think that was possible."

He ran a hand through his curls and grinned down at me sheepishly. "Yeah, I've been so nervous about tonight with Rose that I've gone to the gym pretty much every night for the past two weeks."

When Emmett was a scrawny fourteen-year-old, Charlie had caught him smoking pot. Not too big a deal when you live in the middle of nowhere (there's nothing else to do out there but smoke and drink with your friends), but a big deal when your father's a police sergeant. Charlie's solution for this situation was for Emmett to join him in his daily workout. Emmett went from scrawny to buff in under a year and from then on, it was his favourite stress reliever.

I patted his massive bicep and smiled sympathetically.

"You know, if you ever need to talk something out..." I shrugged. Our family was not big on talking about the love we all had for each other. "You know where I live."

He smiled at me, understanding my unsaid words. "I know, Bells."

He gave me an unnecessarily loud kiss on my forehead, a quick shoulder pat and a smile before walking out my door.

I looked at my bedside alarm clock: 1:45 A.M. Bedtime for Bella.

I flipped open my phone and opened the new message that was waiting for me.

_Dog person, definitely. I'm too scared of hurting a cat when I pet it to really enjoy petting/owning one. Or should I say one owning me. Lol. Question: Young Robert Downey Jr. or Older Robert Downey Jr._

I laughed at his question.

_Older Downey Jr. hands down. I'm usually against drugs, but in his case, they did good!__ Think I'm gonna get some shut eye. I'll text you tomorrow after class._

I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face, leaving my phone in my room. I'd lost four phones in toilet-related incidents alone; I'd learned. When I got back to my room, my phone was blinking at me.

_Agree about Downey Jr. If I was gay? Damn! I would definitely hit that. Lol. And definitely bedtime for you. Goodnight, Bella. Sweet dreams and I'll talk to you tomorrow._

_Lol. Nice. Thanks and goodnight to you too, Jasper._


End file.
